om: Cub Driver lo

The most famous
example was the launch of the Dootlittle raiders in April 1942, when
you can see a B-25 actually dipping below deck level as it took off
for Japan.

That was Travis Hoover's plane. He was the second off after Doolittle.
Apparently the pitch up of the deck as he launched put the nose up too high and
he dropped down to pick up air speed. Whether that was done with conscious
intent or whether that's just the way the inert mass behaved when trundled off
the front end of a flight deck depends on whose telling the tale. Apparently
timing the launch to coincide with the correct angle of the pitching deck was
critical and it took a near miss for the navy guy waving the flag (whatever you
call him) to get the timing exactly right, the progress of a B-25 down the
flight deck not being exactly the same as that of the single-engine jobs the
navy was used to launching.


Chris Mark